News Updates — Medicare Regulations and Reimbursements

Our biweekly news updates are designed to keep you up to date with current developments relating to the Acute Care Continuum. Feel free to share your perspective on these stories or link to articles that you have found relevant to today's healthcare environment.

As observation units have become more prevalent, a chief complaint among patients and providers has been that admittance to an observation unit does not count "toward the three-inpatient-day minimum required for nursing home coverage." Now the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is urging CMS to change those requirements. Without an inpatient stay, Medicare does not cover follow-up visits to a nursing home, leaving patients on the hook for thousands of dollars in medical bills if they are admitted to a nursing home after being treated in an observation unit.